Chalk Talk

Texas Long Horns!

2010-04-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

Every month I enrich what we are learning through the environment. I have no clue what my neighbors think of me? Random objects are constantly coming and going from my house. I am not afraid to ask to borrow something if I feel it will extend the children's experience. I am a firm believer in teaching the senses. It is one thing to learn about a cow on paper or extend it through a picture book but it is an experience when they can touch it, see it, feel it, smell it and taste it. I feel this way of teaching is crucial if you want to instill the love of learning into a child for a lifetime.

Cowboy Up!

2010-04-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

This months theme is cowboys and deserts! We have our very own cowboy tracker. The children love talking to him, playing with him and posing by him as if he is a mascot(he kind of is).
This theme is rich in new vocabulary! Lunchtime has now become chow, howdy, chaps, cattle, feed store, burro, bolo and many many more.
Last month we explored how animals can vary from continent to continent. This month we will discover that every continent has a desert.
So far this theme has exploded with learning opportunities and I can't wait to see what kind of journey it takes us on.

Color Equations!

2010-04-01T08:50:00.001-07:00

Red + Blue= Purple

Yellow+ Red= Orange

Blue +yellow=Green

Learning is messy!

2010-03-31T13:53:00.001-07:00

I filled an old liquid laundry detergent container with water and gave each child a watering can. They filled their own watering can with water from the recycled detergent container and made mud. The purpose of this activity was to teach them about mud huts and how some villages in Africa make their homes. This activity also provided opportunities for the children to use their fine motor skills, explore and work together.

Food Revolution

2010-03-31T12:50:00.001-07:00

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution has inspired us to cut through the government red tape and try to present healthier food to our children! We have donated our old colorful kid plates to the Goodwill and replaced them with everyday salad plates. We also replaced our miniature forks and spoons with small standard utensils. We have also started our garden. We have starts in the house and have planted onions and broccoli outside. I can't wait for the children to see how food grows!
♥Romaine lettuce
♥Grapes
♥Whole grain angel hair pasta
♥Marinara sauce with fresh veggies and lean meat.

2010-03-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

This was her own idea. After playing with our safari fridge puzzles she observed the mom in the puzzle carrying her baby this way. Children learn so much from dramatic play. It means the world to me when they observe something new, using the skills and curriculum we explore during class time.

The Water Hole!

2010-03-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

We have been reading The Water Hole by Graeme Base. We extended this book through dramatic play. The children picked a safari animal and acted out the story in the book. We also used this book to encourage the children to drink more water. We purchased a brand new water can(rain) and used it for fill or glasses(waterholes). The kids loved this activity and it worked to help them stay more hydrated through the day.

Fly to Africa!

2010-03-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

♥African map
♥Plane tickets
♥ Sign
♥ stamps
♥Taking turns

Black light

2010-03-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Is there a better science experiment for preschoolers than exploring black light?

♥We put butcher paper on the walls and let the kids paint under the black light with fluorescent tempera paint.

♥We also dumped out a new box of crayons and counted 6 glowing!

♥We bought special black light reflective face paint.

♥We played with shaving cream under the black light.

To be continued

Safari

2010-03-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

It is on my "things to do list" to blog more. I wish I could post all of our activities and every clever phrase that comes out of a mouth of a young person. Like most months this one has come and almost gone. We have been all over the African map! We explored ways to travel, people, food, clothes, new words, new letters and read some fun books.

Relationships

2010-03-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

We have turned our pink shop into a friendship house. This is my favorite thing the pink shop has been so far.......wait I say that every time. Anyway we will be using the friendship house to provide a safe place for teachable moments and bonding with our school family. Our first circle time activity using the Friendship House was talking about words. We can use pillow words or sand paper words. I had a fuzzy cozy pillow and asked all the children.... Do you like pillows? How does a pillow make you feel? We passed around the pillow and talked about what we liked about it. I passed sandpaper out and let the children feel and talk about the sandpaper. After we explored the two objects we talked about how we can use pillow words or sandpaper words to talk about our feelings! So far it has been a hit! The children are being more conscious of their language with their friends and dishing out compliments(pillow words) like they are going out of style.

We will keep building on this idea until the kids are ready to move on. It will be interesting to see everything we decide to add and explore. More importantly I can't wait to see the children's friendships blossom and their life tool box full of tools they will use for the rest of their lives!

Dinosaurs

2010-02-24T12:26:00.000-08:00

Our January theme was "DINOSAURS." We had a blast learning about all different kinds of dinosaurs.
♥We prepared and ate different dinosaur foods.
♥we paper mached giant dinosaur eggs.
♥Made dinosaur feet, dinosaur exhibits.
♥Tied pterodactyl's in our tree outside our classroom.
♥Put footprints leading to our front door.
♥Made dinosaur noises.
♥Moved like dinosaurs.
♥Dinosaur egg store

It has been a while!

2009-12-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

Wow! It has been a while since I have posted anything recent! This month has come and gone in a blink of an eye! The kids and I had so much fun this month learning all about our 5 senses and playing with our new props(vintage suitcases and the steamer trunk). We also added white and purple to our painter's palette.
The five senses are so important when you are working with children. They learn so much through touching different textures, seeing things that are esthetically pleasing, smelling, hearing(listening) and of course their favorite exploring the world by tasting it! I always make sure I am teaching all five senses. This month we had the chance to do different activities to make the children more aware of their senses. I love having a different theme every month! It is so fun to see the children look at the world in different ways! Not only does our theme change but the children's way of thinking!( keeps evolving)

Something is fishy

2009-12-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

More nonsense......I stuck a fish decal on the stove and made up a whole story about last nights dinner. It went something like this...I asked Amelia "what do you want for dinner?"and she said "fish". I looked in the refrigerator, I looked in the dryer, I looked in the dishwasher, I looked in the shower, and I even looked in Nicks lunch box. I couldn't find fish anywhere. Then we put our shoes, our coats, a scarf, and a hat on and went to the market. When we got to the market the fish had already gone to bed for the night. I asked Amelia "what should we do?" She said "lets go fishing." We went back home I packed our fishing poles, tackle box and Amelia loaded the boat! When we got to the lake we ran into more problems and more adventures. But to make a long story short, when we got home to cook our dinner one of the fish tried to escape. So we named him Henry, the singing fish(because he is singing).
The kids got a lot of laughs out of my story and had fun with the fish all day long. Of course they knew it was just a silly story.

Unclaimed Baggage Center

2009-12-09T13:09:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is a new month and we have tucked away all of our ticket booth manipulative's. We worked hard on creating an unclaimed baggage center for this month's theme "Suitcase Senses." We filled four vintage suitcases with dress up clothes and props. We packed for grandma's house, counted them, stacked them, sorted them, counted the items inside them and worked our fine motor skills opening and closing them. What all will we put in our suitcase's this month? I am wondering how many squashes will they hold? Of course we have to add some nonsense to our curriculum and daily exploring!

GZA Post Office

2009-12-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

We went down to our local Post Office. After we explored the post office we went home to design and make a post office in our dramatic child size village. It was their idea to use two rooms. One for weighing, sorting and sending and the other room for mailbox's just like the real post office! Introducing a post office into our tiny town opens up endless opportunities to teach the kids through play.
Airmail.... sending a bird
balloon through the mail was not my idea.
That is nonsense!

Ahoy!

2009-11-30T14:45:00.000-08:00

Red sky at night sailors delight.
Red sky in morning sailor take warning!
We've been pirates, pilgrims, fisherman and sailors! They learned some new vocabulary such as sail, anchor, pilgrim, arrr and mate to name a few. We also sailed through a great lagoon full of crocodiles!
We learned how and why a boat floats and explored the different makes and models. It was perfect.....right before Thanksgiving! Of course they learned about the first Thanksgiving :o)

Color.....

2009-11-30T09:59:00.000-08:00

Every month we add two colors to our painters' palette. It is by far one of the children's favorite activities. Not only do I teach them colors in English, but Spanish and Sign Language as well. We also play a game called "Painted People" we look around at our friends and see what colors they are wearing. Then we paint them with the corresponding paintbrush.

Ready, Set, Count!

2009-11-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Not everything we do consist of group activities! Sometimes it is one on one or small groups during freeplay. Each month I recieve a different board game that compliments our curriculum. This month it is a racing boardgame. I sat down with all the kids and we practiced taking turns, picking out what color we wanted, rolling the dice and counting. I love teaching such young people. Everything is a learning opportunity.

Airport Explorer

2009-11-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun exploring the airport! We went into the Boeing KC-97 Fuel Tanker. We had fun looking out all the windows and getting different views of the wings. We got a chance to sit in the cockpit, Punch buttons and pretend fly!

Flying really worked up an appetite. After we landed we decided to go have some brunch at the Sky House Bar and Grill. The airport has endless opportunities.....taxi station, shuttle station, bus station, arrivals and departures, flights, road signs, baggage claims etc. We all had a great time and what a nice addition to our curriculum this month.

Choo Choo Trains

2009-11-16T13:02:00.000-08:00

Chug a chug a choo choo.......so many train noises! The kids were full of excitement as I pulled the box of trains from the garage. They each got a rag and started helping clean and set them up for play! They decided we can keep them in the parking garage. The kids are such big helpers and love making choices on how and where they want things set up! They are learning problem solving skills.

Seatbelts and Carseats

2009-11-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

Today we made a car out of our dining room chairs! The kids had so much fun taking turns driving, riding and deciding where to go! We also learned about safety belts and car seats. They all colored their own carseat and then we installed them into our make shift car. We talked about things we do while we are in the car with our mommy's and daddy's and why we wear seat belts and ride in a carseat. We drove through Wildlife Safari, we went to Target and bought slurpees,the carwash,we bought some gas and of course the toy store! What a morning!

Beep! Beep!

2009-11-12T21:12:00.001-08:00

Watch out when you come into our house! Everybody just got their license and we have a bunch of crazy drivers. We set up a DMV and drivers' ed. I love nonsense, things out of the ordinary or putting things where they don't belong! Like a highway through my kitchen!

After our trip to drive up and down the parking garage the kids decided to turn the construction shop into a parking garage so they would have a place to park.

We are having so much fun exploring things that go. One month doesn't seem long enough!

2009-11-10T08:43:00.000-08:00

For the month of November we will be exploring things that go. We have already changed our ballet studio into a ticket booth with money, train tickets, airplane tickets, bus tickets, a world map and a new sign. I love it! Language arts, counting, social skills, geography etc. Kids learn so much!
We are going to change our grocery shop into a post office after we take a field trip to the post office to get some ideas. While we are there we plan on mailing a letter to ourselves!